Jason Mercier has claimed that he won much more than the first place prize ($273,335) in sidebets for taking down the $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship.
Taking side bets on the already juicy action at the World Series of Poker is one of them biggest motivating factor amongst players. Players like Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan have made bracelet bets where they could win millions if they succeed.
We have already talked a lot about Jason Mercier’s fantastic WSOP and now we can report about his side bet action aswell.
Mercier won the Player of the Year award after making 11 ITM finishes with four final tables and two wins for a total of $956,105.
In one of his recent interviews, Mercier has stated that he won much more than the first place prize money in the $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship by taking down the event. Mercier won $273,335 in the event but according to some rumors he could have actually banked more than $1 million for the win, $200,000 of which came from Fedor Holz’s pocket.
Mercier also had a huge bracelet bet with Vanessa Selbst. Selbst offered him 180:1 odds on winning three bracelets and Mercier risked his $10,000 for a potential payday of $1.8 million.
Mercier was insanely close to winning the bet, after the 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship he also won the $10,000 HORSE championship and finished in second place in the $10,000 Seven Card Razz Championship.
According to rumors circulating on Twitter, Selbst bought out from the bracelet bet for $100,000 earlier, although this hasn’t been confirmed.
Either way, Selbst was lucky that Mercier didn’t win his bet which Selbst offered him when drunk at a party. Selbst was mad at Mercier after he didn’t agree on a buyout from the bet which many players thought was ridiculous for a player of her caliber.
